Finding Grace
by drgemini86
Summary: What else did the hallucinations tell Sam? Missing scenes for Grace. SamJack - not for SamJack fans exactly, SamDaniel
1. Chapter 1

_**Finding Grace, by DrGemini86 (DrGemini24)**___

_**Summary: **__What else did the hallucinations tell Sam? Missing scenes for Grace. SamJack, SamDaniel_

_**Pairing: **__SamJack (not exactly for SamJack fans), SamDaniel_

_**Rating: **__T_

_**Category: **__UST/Pre-Ship_

_**Genres: **__Angst, A/U, Drama, Episode-Related, Relationship-focussed, Thoughts_

_**Spoilers: **__Seasons 1-7_

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"_Are you happy, Sam?"_

A concussed Sam, who had been trying to find out what had happened to the crew of the Prometheus as well as preventing the ship from being corroded by the gases that surrounded the ship, sat alone at the Mess table, the hallucination of Jacob Carter having disappeared after telling her that she was content and not happy with her current situation. She groaned as she slowly rubbed her face, the beginnings of tears springing to her eyes as she thought of what her father had told her about her mother.

Even in her concussed state, her head feeling as though it didn't belong to her any more, she couldn't help but question the meaning of her father's words. He wasn't even her father. He was a product of her subconscious mind. So why had it affected her so much?

Because it was the truth... well, she wasn't sure of the parts about her mother, about whether Jacob Carter really did love her mother or whether she just wanted to believe that after everything that had happened. But the rest. His words, his appearance... they had all been from her mind, and as she mulled over the words, she knew what he... or rather, she had meant.

She was alone.

And not just alone aboard the Prometheus.

"_I know you have denied yourself the experience because you think that it must inevitably end in pain, and loneliness..."_

Well, her previous relationships hadn't helped. Jonas had been a control freak, and had then developed a God complex during her first year on SG-1. Narim... well, she liked him, but then after hosting Jolinar for the brief time that she had and subsequently sharing the Tok'ra's memories, she became confused about whether her feelings in general were actually her own. With Martouf... and Lantash, she loved them dearly, both from Jolinar's feelings and memories, and when she had got to know them herself, but there was still the confusion and the fact that there wasn't really anything there except for the ghost of a dead woman.

As for Jack... there was something there, she knew, or there could have been, had either been willing to make the necessary sacrifices. Maybe she was the one who needed to make the sacrifice. Maybe for once she needed to make that leap... because Jack sure as hell wasn't going to do it. But all that for some sort of an attraction that she wasn't sure was even visible in the light of day?

"_For as long as she was alive, your mother showed me a world beyond just ambition and career.__"_

'A world beyond just ambition and career'. Those words resonated in her head and she closed her eyes as her hands dropped to the table top with a thud. Her career meant the world to her, just like Daniel's career meant the world to him, the Major sharing a passion for knowledge with her team-mate. She had worked hard to get where she was today. She had a PhD in Theoretical Astrophysics, numerous Masters; she was a highly decorated Major in the Air Force; she had one of the best shooting aims at the SGC; she had seen and done so many things that other people could only dream of... and she was a member of the best and most supportive team that she could have ever wanted to be a member of.

But she had never once considered whether there could be more to life than that. That was all she had known. Her father had chosen his career over his family, and while that had hurt her and her brother deeply, he had still made the rank of General. She could do all of that and more, and without a family to hurt or to neglect. Through all of her hard work, she had given herself numerous avenues to go down, other paths to follow should one career path not work out. But through It all, she remained alone. There hadn't been time to consider settling down... and the last time she had considered that, with Jonas, how that relationship had turned out had permanently scarred her, and skewed her views of love in general.

"_It's time to let go of the things that prevent you from finding happiness. You deserve to love someone, and be loved in return."_

Her father... or rather her mind's version of him, had solved the problem. To let go of the things that were preventing her from finding happiness. To give up her career? To give up everything that she had worked hard for, for so many years?

Still trembling from the shock of his... or her words, and the implications, she rested her chin on her clasped hands as she looked up at the ceiling, her eyes brightened with tears. That went against everything that she had stood for, her principles. She had always thought that when it came to settling down, the person whom she planned on spending her life with wouldn't make her give up everything for him.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam now sat on the floor of the bridge and looking ready to give up now that she had done everything that she felt that she could do to alleviate her current situation. She smiled ruefully as she watched the mysterious little blonde girl who bore her mother's name blow bubbles. It was one thing for her to see different members of her team – except for Jack – and then her father, but this girl kept appearing to her. And if indeed she was a product of the Major's subconscious mind, what was she trying to tell her?

The Major groaned softly as she closed her eyes for a moment. She didn't care. She opened them again to see the bubbles float in the air above her, and she couldn't help but marvel at the shape of them, at how they caught the light and how small rainbow smears were visible on some of them. Grace looked at her and asked with a girlish grin,

"Wanna try?"

Sam shook her head, and Grace persisted. "It's fun."

Fun.

Now there was something that she hadn't had in a while. Sure, her work excited her, but when had she ever done something spontaneous and completely non-work related? For seven years she had lived and breathed the Stargate... her travels, the technology, the people she had met. For all of those years, she had never once taken a holiday.

There were the occasional nights at Daniel's house, tearing apart movies between them, despite the Archaeologist teasing her about scorning much of the sci-fi that they had tended to watch. He was just as bad as her when it came to films like Indiana Jones and the Mummy. And she had missed that when he had been Ascended. She had missed a lot of things about him then.

Despite her current predicament, she couldn't help but smile at the thought of Daniel excitedly scorning the Mummy, and only because she had hidden his notebook, not writing down a list of factual errors to send to the Producers of the film.

She loved her team. They each had their own crazy quirks... like Jack's apparent short attention span when she and Daniel were exchanging ideas, but then jumping in from out of left field with flawless definition of terms like 'pulsar' and 'neutron star'. And Teal'c's now deliberate grammatical misappropriations, used chiefly in times of what she had termed 'Colonel-baiting'.

Sam looked up at the bubbles that Grace had blown, and then she said, "I remember when I was a little girl I used to wonder how a bubble could exist. You see there's this thing called surface tension, when molecules bind together in a certain way…"

Grace looked bored. "Boring!"

Had her mind suddenly mapped Jack's attention span onto Grace?

Grace approached the Major and held the bubble wand in front of her, saying, "Here, just try it."

Sam was then reminded of when she and the rest of SG-1 used to take Cassie to the park so many years ago, not long after they had brought her back from Hanka. The Major had wanted to adopt her, but she hadn't been a suitable candidate due to being prone to staying away from home for days or even weeks at a time. She remembered explaining the concept of surface tension to Cassie on a lazy summer's day as she plaited her hair while Cassie blew bubbles.

Back in the present, Sam took the wand from the little girl and then blew a stream of bubbles into the air, and Grace gleefully commented, "See. Fun."

Sam finally allowed herself to smile properly, which worried her deep inside that she was giving up, and she replied, "Yeah."

Suddenly, a voice roused her from her state of growing self-pity... the voice of a man that she hadn't seen in her previous hallucinations. "Alright Carter, come on, on your feet, let's go..."

No nonsense as ever, Jack, now bewilderingly in civilian clothes, was stood in the doorway of the bridge, and Sam remarked weakly as she looked up at him, "I was wondering when you were going to show up."

"You just gonna sit there?"

She could have made a lot of money had anyone else been present if she had bet that those were the words Jack O'Neill would say to her in a situation like this. That, and 'oh for crying out loud!', but that remained to be seen... or heard.

But then if there had been anyone else present, how would she be sure that they were real either?

She looked down, a stone's throw away from just going to sleep for the sake of it. "Too tired Sir."

Jack then entered the bridge and sat down opposite her, and Sam couldn't help but think of her father's words earlier on seeing Jack in civilian clothes. '_It's time to let go of the things that prevent you from finding happiness. you deserve to love someone, and be loved in return.' _

Jack remarked, "Samantha, I'm a figment of your imagination, you're gonna call me Sir? Daniel never calls me Sir."

Sam frowned in confusion at the mention of Daniel, and then she replied, realising how ludicrous it was to call him by his salutation when he wasn't even real enough to discipline her, "Old habits, sorry."

Always to the point, even in hallucinations, Jack remarked gruffly, "You gonna save yourself or what?"

"I'm tired."

"Just giving up then?"

She replied, sounding more resigned than helpless, "I don't know what to do."

"You'll think of something." Typical Jack O'Neill, expecting her to pull answers out at the last minute. She was concussed and inexplicably alone, experiencing wild hallucinations, and he still expected her to solve the problem?

She retorted tiredly, "Come to give me a pep talk?"

"It's what friends are for."

She remarked sadly, "Friends."

He shrugged. "Hey. This is you talking here. Might as well be honest."

Well, he did have a point... or rather, she did. And if she was talking to herself in reality, then she couldn't embarrass herself, right? She asked him the one question that had been preying on her mind for some time. "What if I quit the Air Force? Would that change anything or is it just an excuse?"

As soon as the words had left her mouth, she felt as though she had made a mistake. What was she doing? Offering to surrender herself to a figment of her imagination? They were going to use her in case studies in Psychology textbooks in years to come.

He replied, looking mildly concerned, "I would never ask you to give up your career."

Ok. Good. That was a good start. But he would never do it either.

Despite everything, she looked upset. "Because you don't feel anything for me?"

He looked a little testy. "Carter?"

She continued, her voice tinged with emotion, "I'd let you go right now if I knew."

He looked sceptical. "That easy?"

"I didn't say it would be easy."

"Then what's stopping you? If you really want to know."

"I'm trying." She had drafted a letter of resignation many times, but had deleted it just as many times. She couldn't bring herself to do it, and a part of her always knew why, even if she didn't want to accept it.

"Maybe it's not me that's the problem here. Let's face it, I'm not that complex."

She looked confused, and then it began to dawn on her that all this time she had expected _him_ to approach her, to show some kind of a sign that he was interested and wanted to take it further. "Me?"

"Sam, I'm a safe bet." She frowned, and then realised what he had meant. All of that time she had hung onto him out of fear. She always knew that it would never happen, and that was why she had done it.

"As long as I'm thinking about you, setting my sights on what I think is unattainable, there's no chance of being hurt by someone else."

"Jacob was right. You deserve more. I will always be there for you, no matter what. Believe me. It's just that in all of this time, you've never really let yourself look at someone else in your life. And, hey, I'm flattered, but you always knew how it would work out between us. We'd either be arrested or sectioned, or both within a week. Who's been trying to get you to use your head about the mess you've managed to get yourself into?"

She frowned at the question, confused at what he meant as she remembered a hallucination earlier of Teal'c who had suggested that an enemy may be using her for information. "Teal'c?"

Jack rolled his eyes. "Come on. Guess again, Carter. Less paranoid this time."

Her eyes widened slightly as she finally realised. "Daniel?"

Jack's lips tightened briefly. "He's lonely just like you. A brain the size of the universe but no-one to share his life with."

She looked defensive. "Because he's lonely?"

"Come on, Carter... you know that it isn't just that. When you talk to him, you don't have to think about whether he would understand or not. Even if he didn't understand what the hell you were talking about, he would still understand when you explained it to him. And let's face it, you have some very unprofessional thoughts when you look at him sometimes... especially about those fingers..."

She reddened and lowered her head in embarrassment, wondering how she was embarrassed if she was talking to herself. "Jack..."

He smiled slightly at not only reaching her but also her use of his first name. "That's better." He sighed. "Look... you both need lives and you're compatible." He raised an eyebrow when she looked sceptical. "Hey, it's you talking, not me. I wouldn't be anywhere near this patient... and I wouldn't say 'compatible'. Next you'll have me explaining Lorentz transformations..."

She looked thoughtful, and he continued, "Let's face it... Daniel's a good looking guy... and he hasn't had a date in how long? Didn't you ever wonder why? Now me, emotionally reclusive, I'd get by, but Daniel... he needs someone, and so do you."

Sounding choked up, she rested her head back against the computer system that she was sitting against, and asked as he gazed at her sadly, "So what now?"

He replied, "Go save your ass."


	3. Chapter 3

As Sam frantically worked in the engine room of the Prometheus, following a Eureka moment as she watched Grace blow bubbles on the bridge, she couldn't help but think of her earlier hallucination of Jack, and what he had said to her. She sighed, working faster as a means to distract herself when a familiar voice said, startling her somewhat, the Major still not stopping,

"See, what did I tell you? Look at the cloud."

She glanced up to see Daniel leaning against the console that she was working on, and she said through gritted teeth, frustrated at his ebullience while she struggled, "You're not helping."

He grinned at her. "I love it when you get mad at me. You rarely do. I mean, you get concerned when I act out under the influence of alien substances or grief... or when I couldn't remember who you were. You think it's cute when I ramble on about Phoenician. But you've never once yelled at me... yet here you are trying to ignore me. But why?"

"That's still not helping!"

He walked around to her side of the console and stood next to her as she paused, looking up at him, fear showing in her eyes. "No, no... it is. This isn't just about you getting yourself out and rescuing the crew. This is also about discovering who you are, learning to be honest with yourself for once. You've learnt so much already." He looked down at her thoughtfully as she struggled to retain his gaze, feeling ashamed. "But you're scared."

She sniffed back a sudden onset of tears as his tone lowered, and she looked down at her lap. She looked up at him again and said, her voice wobbly with emotions and concussion, "Daniel... stop it." She closed her eyes and lowered her head once again, feeling exposed. "Just leave me alone, Daniel. Please." The last word was nothing more than a weak whisper as she felt her resolve and the walls she had built around her heart, crumble.

He exhaled. "No."

She looked up at him and despite the tears in her eyes, she looked defiant. "No?!"

He cocked his head, watching her. "No." He shrugged. "I've changed you, Sam. You only see what matters because of me... and you regretted not telling me how you felt when I lay dying. Instead of acting on your feelings now that you have the opportunity... or at least when you have the opportunity when you get out of this mess, you're going to wait until it's too late again."

She sighed sadly and then looked up at him. "Would it help then if I left the Air Force?"

"Because I'm a civilian and you think that I might not dig soldiers?" He looked at her teasingly for a moment and then looked concerned. "Sam. Don't be silly. I'd never ask you to do that. You're always yourself with me. You're not scared to tell me things. You're not scared to open up to me. And yet you haven't seriously considered a relationship because you made up some stupid excuse in your head about us being like brother and sister." He snorted. "Yeah right. I might not have experience in the whole normal family thing, but I'm sure you don't think of Mark the way you think of me sometimes."

She shook her head and resumed working. "You're just a figment of my imagination. Daniel wouldn't say those things to me."

"Because you're scared."

"Stop saying that!"

"Well, you are. Major Samantha Carter PhD, who's blown up suns and flown interstellar craft... and you're scared of telling your best friend that you had a dream once where..."

She reddened profusely and said, glaring at him, "Daniel!"

He grinned at her again. "You're not mad at me. You're mad at yourself. You know it's true." He smoothed her hair, and she asked, looking up at him once more,

"Why didn't you say anything before? Jack and Dad were..."

He gazed at her tenderly. "Because you might never have believed yourself." He appeared to be in full-blown lecture mode as he made expansive gestures with his hands "Why did Jack appear in civilian clothes and your dashing civilian was and still is wearing fatigues? Because Jack symbolises here that either one of you would have to change for a relationship between you to get off the ground, and it still wouldn't work because he's not complex enough for you. You've always known that." He smiled. "Now little ol' me, here... I symbolise your scientific side, how you solve problems. You can work side-by-side with me and still have a relationship."

She frowned at him sceptically. "I'm no expert on regulations, but wouldn't fraternisation regs apply to you too seeing as you're contracted by the Air Force to do what you do?"

He shrugged. "You're not in command of the team. If it were me and Jack, then things would be different." She couldn't help but smirk in amusement, and he continued, smoothing her cheek as her smile faded, "You'd still have the Air Force."

"But I won't be on SG-1. I won't be able to work with you. I don't think I can go through that again, not going through the 'gate with you." She quickly wiped away her eyes, trying to forget her pain as she resumed working with an anguished expression on her face. She then said, still working,

"If I give up the Air Force, I could be hired back as a civilian. False modesty aside, I'm too valuable to the programme. Nowhere near as valuable as you, but..."

He grinned once again, standing on tip-toe for a moment as he put his hands in his pockets. "I'm pretty great, aren't I? Opening the Stargate, making friends, working miracles, coming back from the dead..."

She looked up at him in shock at the uncharacteristic display of arrogance. "Daniel?!"

"Hey, as Jack said, it's you talking, not me. I'd have to be drunk to be this giddy." He then sighed, his smile gone as he looked down at her. "Sam. Don't give up. We'll find a way. There's always a way." She sniffed, looking up at him as she said,

"But what if..."

The words died on her lips as she noticed that he had disappeared, and she dried her eyes again before continuing to work. Shortly afterwards, Grace appeared once again, watching the Major closely as Sam began to hope that she was experiencing one long, involved yet odd dream.


	4. Chapter 4

After getting the Prometheus and the alien ship out of the cloud and rescuing the crew of the Prometheus, Sam woke up in the SGC Infirmary, the dimmed lights suggesting even to her concussed mind that it was now late night and only a few medical staff would be on duty. She could hear the bleeps of monitors and as she completely came to, she noticed Jack seated at her bedside. He said, noticing that she had woken up,

"Hey."

Her mind still foggy, she heard in her head the hallucination of Jack that she had experienced aboard the ship, and she said his name. "Jack?"

This Jack, the real one, wasn't as open as the hallucination who had broken down the barriers between them, and he looked surprised. "Excuse me?"

She sighed silently as her mind became clearer. It was too much to hope for that he would ever let her call him by his first name, even when they were off-duty. She struggled to focus as she became a little embarrassed as she realised just what she had done. "Sorry, Sir."

He remarked as he got up, "Yes, well, a massive concussion will tend to… _disorient_ one."

Typical, trying to explain it away. She asked, now curious as she really noticed the darkness of their surroundings, and remembered the seemingly endless time she had spent aboard the Prometheus, "How long was I out there?"

"It's all relative Carter, that whole time-space continuum thing."

She fought the urge to roll her eyes as she gently rebuked him. "Sir."

He replied, "Four days."

She looked uncomfortable as she remembered more of what happened. "Could have sworn it was weeks."

Sensing her discomfort, he attempted to change the subject. "Um, Teal'c and Daniel say hi, uh, they're planning a little bit of a shindig for when you're up and around. There's talk of cake."

She smiled in surprise, as well as at the prospect of seeing all of her team again. "A cake?"

He said, a little too quickly which led Sam to believe the idea was anything but his, "My idea."

She smiled again, this time in anticipation, wanting to be with the rest of her friends. "Can't wait."

He asked, raising his eyebrows briefly, "Need anything? Magazine? Yo-yo?"

She bit back a laugh and shook her head, replying, "I'm fine." She smiled faintly, knowing that either Daniel or Teal'c would sneak in her laptop later on. Speaking of which, where were they?

Jack replied with a strange wistfulness on his face, "Yes, you are." He turned to leave and she said, remembering what the hallucination of him had told her aboard the Prometheus, knowing that her mental projection of him had been based in reality, and that he would have motivated her had he really been there,

"Thank you, Sir."

He turned back to her, looking mildly confused. "For what?"

She smiled slightly, knowing that he would never know how much he had helped her. "Nothing."

He mirrored her smile. "Think nothing of it. I've got plenty of that."

They smiled at each other and he was about to leave again when she asked, "Sir?"

He turned back to her once again, his eyebrows rising slowly as he bit back a retort in the vein of asking whether he had suddenly become a spinning top. "Carter?"

"Where's Daniel..." She panicked, not wanting him to get any ideas. "... and Teal'c?"

He smirked. "Don't think I don't know what you've got going down. The minute my back is turned, you'll have them ferrying in half your lab... or Teal'c would do it while Daniel turns those blue eyes on our Napoleonic Power Monger and makes the Nurses pass out." He gestured lazily behind him with his thumb as he stood at the foot of her bed. "Dannyboy wouldn't go home... even after I set Teal'c on him, and then they both turned on me." He muttered, shaking his head as he looked to one side, "Typical. Any other CO would have shot those two by now... well, shot Daniel at least."

Sam looked down in a partial attempt to hide her smile. He smiled slightly, his smile fading as he watched her for a moment, a muted sadness briefly showing in his eyes, and he said, "Doc would kill me if she found out... but how about if I get them?"

She said, looking worried as she looked up at him once again, "It can wait 'til morning."

He shrugged. "They're awake if that's what you're worried about. T's still not used to sleeping, and you know what Daniel's like... I'll bet that boy's still in his office despite the fact that I gave him a good yelling at midnight."

She frowned, asking, "What time is it?"

He smiled faintly, glancing at his wristwatch. "Just gone half three." He clapped his hands. "I'll go bring them." He turned on his heel with a smirk and was about to leave when they heard Daniel's voice, sounding a little bleary-eyed, the Archaeologist appearing in the doorway, silhouetted against the corridor lighting.

"Jack, we're not kids."

Sam straightened up in bed and perked up on seeing Daniel and then the looming figure of Teal'c as Jack remarked, exasperated, "Hey! What did I tell you guys!?"

Daniel yawned and then made a face as Teal'c retorted, "You inferred that we would excite MajorCarter."

"I distinctly remember saying that she needed a rest... and you sneaking in worky things isn't going to help things, no matter how many kids you scared last Halloween."

Daniel couldn't help but smile and then as Teal'c stood at the foot of Sam's bed, the Archaeologist approached Sam's bedside as Jack raised an eyebrow on seeing the Major's face light up. Daniel asked as he took Jack's previous seat, surprised when Sam reached for his hand, but not resisting,

"Hey. How are you feeling?"

She replied as she gazed at him with a little smile, "Not too bad. A little out of it."

They both looked up when Teal'c said with a little smile of his own, "You performed an extraordinary feat, MajorCarter in single-handedly saving the Prometheus and its crew."

Sam smiled in thanks, and then said with a shrug as her smile faded on remembering the hallucinations, "I don't remember much of it though. I wanted to see the cloud." She looked down at her hands in disappointment and then realised that she was still holding Daniel's, and Jack said with a shrug,

"Hey, you'll get plenty more opportunities the next time you're hanging with the new President of your fan club on his ship."

Daniel's level voice drew her attention to the Archaeologist next to her, who smiled in a way that usually had the Nurses fighting over who could accompany Janet while she treated him for injuries sustained off-world... and which was now turning her heart into mush. "There's talk of a medal for what you did."

She frowned slightly, not sure if she had heard him correctly. "But I didn't do anything."

Teal'c's reply drew everyone's eyes to the tall and usually silent Jaffa, who still remained standing at the foot of the bed, Jack standing next to him. "That is incorrect. Your actions resulted in the recovery of the crew from an alien vessel, and the salvation of the Prometheus from a cloud of corrosive gas."

Daniel looked back at Sam with that same little smile on his face as Jack remarked, "Couldn't have said it better myself." He patted his stoic team-mate on the back, and Teal'c, wondering if the Colonel would be able to withstand a customary Jaffa back-slapping without the need for medical treatment, asked Sam,

"Do you require anything, MajorCarter?"

She shook her head and smiled at him gratefully. "I'm fine thanks."

Teal'c nodded slowly with a small smile, and Daniel asked, looking eager as he glanced at Jack, "Did Jack tell you about the party we've got planned when we work out a way to help you escape this place?"

Sam nodded enthusiastically as Jack remarked, shooting Daniel a look, "The team that plots together, gets needled together."

Teal'c retorted as Sam and Daniel looked up at him, chuckling eventually, "The Tau'ri that plot together will be subjected to extra large needles by DoctorFrasier. I have no desire to risk impeding MajorCarter's recovery as a means to fasten the deed to the superior adult male."

Jack exclaimed, throwing his hands down in exasperation after a moment of confusion and then another moment of eyebrow raising, "It's _sticking it to the man_, T. Honestly, haven't I taught you anything? I swear, you do it on purpose these days."

When he spotted Teal'c smirking, Jack crowed in triumph and then looked perturbed, "I knew it! All this time you've been yanking my chain..."

Daniel remarked, raising his eyebrows mirthfully at the Colonel, "Shouldn't that be propelling your metallic restraint, Jack?"

Jack retorted, glaring at him as Sam tried to hide her grin under her sheets as Teal'c smirked in triumph, "Says the guy who managed to get lost in a jungle."

"That's nothing compared to you getting lost on a moon."

"How many times have you died now?"

Teal'c cleared his throat as Daniel opened his mouth to shoot a retort back at the Colonel. Daniel promptly closed his mouth when Teal'c said, an eyebrow raised, "I do not see how this will contribute to MajorCarter's recovery."

Sam smiled in amusement as she patted Daniel's hand while Jack shot Teal'c a dirty look, and then feigned innocence when the Jaffa turned to look at him meaningfully. Jack then said, looking at Sam, and noticing that she still held Daniel's hand,

"Well, we'd better let you get some rest, otherwise we'll all get the biggest needles known to the Milky Way, never mind Earth. Hammond would let the scary little doctor use Sokar's particle thingy on our asses as well." He grimaced a little as Sam looked amused. "It can cut through an iris, you know."

Teal'c made his way around to the other side of Sam's bed and said, holding her other hand as he looked down at her, "We will let you rest, MajorCarter. I wish you an expedient recovery." As Sam smiled, he leaned down and gently kissed her on the forehead. Touched at the gesture as he straightened up again, Sam smiled, whispering hoarsely as she gave his hand a squeeze, tears springing to her eyes,

"Thank you, Teal'c."

He nodded with a small smile. "You are most welcome, MajorCarter."

Jack said with a little wave as Teal'c joined him, "Don't forget to shout if you want a magazine or anything. As your CO, I'm banning you from anything work related for the duration of your recovery... which means that you can get into heaps of trouble if..." He glared at Teal'c and an innocent looking Daniel. "... these two traitors bring your sciency stuff in."

Sam remarked with a tiny smile, "I do have concussion, Sir."

"So?"

"I can't be held responsible for my actions in my purportedly delusional state due to not being of sound mind." She poked her tongue out at him and his eyebrows shot up as Daniel quietly snickered while Teal'c smirked.

"You're just lucky Hammond likes you." He patted Teal'c's arm as he raised his eyebrows at Sam teasingly, his next words spoken to Teal'c. "Come on, T, let's leave our soon to be court-martialled Major..." Teal'c moved to follow him when Jack turned around and asked Daniel, noticing much to his bewilderment that the younger man was still seated, "Danny, you coming?"

Daniel looked at Sam, who said, tightening her grip on his hand as she looked scarily vulnerable for the briefest of moments, "Don't go."

Daniel gazed at her thoughtfully and nodded, looking concerned. He then looked back at Jack, whose face had now become emotionless on seeing the exchange between his two team-mates, and he said softly, "I think I'll stay a little longer, Jack."

Jack acknowledged this by nodding almost imperceptibly before leaving the Infirmary. Teal'c nodded at Sam in farewell before following the Colonel as Daniel and Sam bade them goodnight. Daniel smiled slightly as he returned his gaze to Sam, his smile fading on seeing that she looked upset, her gaze fixed on their hands, which were still linked. He asked, instantly concerned,

"Sam?"

She shook her head and he, looking troubled, said quietly as he stood in order to move her pillows so that she was in a lying position once more, the Major having sat up when he and Teal'c had arrived, "You must have been through a lot."

She nodded, gazing up at him as he sat down, holding her hand again. "More than you know."

He reached up with his other hand to smooth stray strands of fair hair from her forehead as he said, his brow furrowed with worry, "I suggested that we check the Stargates of the worlds on or near the Prometheus' route in case you might have made an emergency landing for whatever reason. Jack didn't seem too amenable to the idea. In fact he's been grouchy the entire time you were gone... which is something considering he's grouchy a lot of the time."

She smiled slightly. "I thought something like that would happen... although I thought maybe that you'd find some way to get the Tok'ra involved."

He made a face. "I tried contacting Jacob but he's on a scouting mission on the other side of the galaxy. All the Tok'ra ships were unavailable but they said they'd get to it as soon as they could."

She gave his hand a squeeze. "Thanks."

He frowned. "For what? I didn't do anything."

In her mind's eye, she saw the hallucinations that she had experienced of him, and she heard his words, which had scared her yet had given her new hope. She saw the hallucination of Jack too and her father, Teal'c and Grace. They had each represented different elements of her psyche... and were all parts of a single puzzle.

Blinking back to the present, she smiled weakly at him, her voice beginning to grow drowsy as she began to blink slower due to tiredness. "You did, Daniel. You kept telling me to look at the cloud instead of running hyper drive simulations. I thought you were being silly but then it turned out that the answer was in the cloud. You made me use my head about the situa..." She yawned, her eyes closed as tiredness began to overwhelm her while Daniel frowned in confusion, his frown lessening as he put her words down to concussion-related delirium. He was about to get up when she curled up in the bed, catching his hand again and resting her cheek against it.

She was about to fall asleep when she heard Grace singing in her head. She opened her eyes again to see Daniel watching over her, and she smiled tiredly. She then murmured drowsily, her eyes flickering closed. "If I resign my commission and come back as a civilian, we'd still be on different teams, Daniel. I'm not sure I can do that."

She finally gave into Morpheus' coaxing as Daniel stared at her, stunned at what she had said, and now unable, in his head, to dismiss it despite being aware that she was concussed. He frowned again, wondering just what she had gone through aboard the Prometheus.

– **Fin**

0o0o0o0o0o0o0

_Thanks for reading, reviewing, story favouriting/alerting. You guys rock. Sequel to come when I make some more headway with the other stories I have on the go. Watch this space for 'Saving Grace'._


End file.
